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  • World tour
    Day 168

    Lunch at Nan and Pop Hue’s place.

    September 19, 2023 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Our overnight train got us to Hue at around 11am and while we were waiting for our rooms to be ready, our tour leader Kien, managed to get us an invitation for an early lunch at a local family’s house.

    Our lunch started with Pop Hue offering us a morning shot of his homemade rice wine. Mot hai ba Yo. And then another one!! Mot hai ba Yo.

    Nan Hue cooked us up a feast. I think we counted 10+ courses. They told us about their kids and their farm. We ended the lunch with, you guessed it, a shot of homemade rice wine, Mot hai ba Yo.    Read more

  • World tour
    Day 167

    Halong to Hanoi

    September 18, 2023 in Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    After a fun night keeping the other boats entertained with our karaoke we went to explore some of the caves in Halong bay. We worked up an appetite and came back to the boat for a delicious breakfast before heading back to port.

    On the way back to Hanoi we stopped off at a cafe/ workshop run by Vietnamese people with disabilities making very intricate crafts. Ariah was very happy to try her first fresh coconut. She thought it was delicious and refreshing.

    Back in Hanoi our lovely tour leader, Kien, took us on a street food walking tour. He also gave us a sneak peak into how the Hanoi locals live. We tried egg coffee from one of the oldest cafes in Hanoi. It’s like a coffee with a custard foam and is actually delicious. We then had some Vietnamese desserts which were a bit like crème caramel. We had some fresh banh mi. Finally we stopped off at a Vietnamese convenience store and stocked up on snacks for the next leg of the journey. We got mochis and Vietnamese pastries but we passed on the vacuum packed chicken feet.

    In the evening we jumped on an overnight train to our next destination. All the kids set up a movie night with snacks in one cabin while the adults sampled the goods from the beer trolley in the cabin next door.    Read more

  • World tour
    1
    Day 166

    Halong bay

    September 17, 2023 in Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    We boarded our junk boat to spend a night on the mystical Halong bay sailing between the enormous limestone “dragon eggs’. We went kayaking through a cave into the centre of one of the eggs and went swimming in one of the Sandy bays.Read more

  • World tour
    1
    Day 165

    Hanoi

    September 16, 2023 in Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C
  • World tour
    11
    Day 165

    Temple of literature

    September 16, 2023 in Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    We visited the first university of Vietnam which is featured on the Vietnamese money. A big statue of Confucius is in the temple. There are stones with centuries of engravings of the smartest people in Vietnam and little bonsai scenes around the grounds.

    We had lunch at a restaurant nearby named KOTO that was started by a Vietnamese Australian and trains underprivileged young people to become chefs and hospitality staff.    Read more

  • World tour
    Day 164

    Good morning Vietnam

    September 15, 2023 in Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    We made it to Vietnam 🇻🇳! No questions about the tear in my passport or India’s name being transcribed back to front by the hopeless visa people. We’ve had an action packed couple of days seeing the city of Hanoi. It’s such a vibrant city with the people and communities having fun on the streets of the city. We visited the ethnology museum to see how the different cultures around Vietnam live. #waterpuppets #hanoi #confucius #templeofliteraturehanoi #hochiminhmuseumRead more

  • World tour
    Day 163

    Rollin’ down the (Mekong) river

    September 14, 2023 in Laos ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    20 years ago Kylie and Dale went to Thailand and heard from people we met that floating down the Mekong in a tyre tube in Laos was a crazy good time…

    We couldn’t make it there then so finally ticking that off this time was a must do especially for Kylz ☺️

    So we squeezed in a quick visit to Vang Viang via fast train.
    We did get off to a bit of a rocky start when the tour desk at the hotel told us we wouldn’t enjoy it as it was cold this time of year and “for young people”. (India and Ariah hid thinking that the unwitting tour organiser was going to cop a severe dressing down for their cool, hip, and young parents!!)

    Ignoring that fun-sponge, we trekked off in the morning through town and made our own arrangements directly and even got free local, homemade snacks as part of the deal!! Take that tour guy!! 👅

    One very bumpy ride in the back of a truck later and we were dumped in the river about 3km out of town, wished good luck, and set on our way in the cold, running waters of wet season Mekong 🤣

    The bars weren’t open as we went at the respectful time of 11am and they only opened for the…young (*cough*) people about an hour after that, but we didn’t mind.

    It was relaxing and fun and we saw some great scenery on the way down and had no issues…At least until we tried to get out at the end (that bit was less well explained to us) but we got there in the end as the guide at the other end chucked us out a rope weighted with a water bottle and dragged us to shore.

    Floating down the Mekong in a tyre tube ✅

    (See the full video here: https://instagram.com/p/CxK91COS1tG/)    Read more

  • World tour
    Day 161

    Sunset on the Mekong

    September 12, 2023 in Laos ⋅ 🌧 30 °C

    Today we jumped on some bikes and had a ride around Luang Prabang.
    It’s a really nice little city on the banks of the Mekong River and full of decorated Buddhist temples.

    In the evening we jumped onto a ferry cruise to get a view of the city from the water.

    Ariah and India got to load up some fish to released later in the cruise as part of a good luck ceremony.
    Poor Ariah’s stool broke when she stood on it though, so her fish missed the holding tank and had to be rescued from the floor after everyone made sure Ari was ok. 🤕
    The ceremony also involved writing a wish on a piece of banana leaf to release into the Mekong with the lucky fishes which was lovely.
    Even better, we got to also write any burden we wanted to be rid of on another piece of banana leaf and those were tied to rock and sunk to the bottom of the Mekong, carrying away all our worries ☺️☺️

    The sunset was lovely and it felt like the cruise went really quickly.

    We headed off to a night market when after we docked. There is a Buddhist festival on at the moment so the market was extra big and busy.
    We got some good deals and the girls showed once again they are master hagglers.

    We finished the night with dinner at the food market, grabbing a little something from a bunch of stalls.    Read more

  • World tour
    Day 160

    Today, I lost my pants!

    September 11, 2023 in Laos ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Today we got to our new hotel in Luang Prabang.
    I put my bag down in the room, and Dad knocked on my door.
    He said we had to go, as it was time to go for a walk to get dinner.

    Unfortunately, I looked down and realised my pants had come off and I had lost my them.

    Everyone waited until I found them and put them back on.
    Then we had dinner.

    By Ariah    Read more

  • World tour
    Day 159

    Amazing food day

    September 10, 2023 in Cambodia ⋅ 🌩️ 29 °C

    It’s not often that Kylie is spoilt for choice at a restaurant but today we stopped for lunch at a really great vegan restaurant in town - and she was stumped…but only for a bit 😋

    Thing is, we were trying to have only small bite to eat as we knew we had a cooking class later that afternoon as an early dinner but with options including cauliflower nuggets, steamed dumplings, not-meatballs, oat milk smoothies, and, to top it all off, mango and sticky rice pudding 🤤🤤 - we had to try a few things at least.

    We headed off to the cooking class later that arvo, and the first stop for that was in the local market to get some insight on where the ingredients came from. We tried a fried mung bean donut (yum) there but it think the thing we’ll remember most is the still live fish flopping around on the floor of the stalls waiting to be snapped up for someone’s dinner!

    The cooking class was fun and we knocked up a feast of curries, rice, tempura mushroom, and tapioca banana pudding and honied sweet potato desserts 😋😋🤤

    We did our very best getting through as much as we could and went home very contented and jumped in the hotel pool to finish our day.    Read more

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